First, thank you to the several people who responded. I was led to this list by a comment from Heather Nagey (Customer Support Manager. Runtime Revolution Ltd.) on the mtropolis survivors list. Quark killed mTropolis in 1998, but a survivors list still exists, even if not very active, some seven years later. So what makes a product worth following so long after its demise?
mTropolis used a section, subsection, scene metaphor (I understand Revolution uses a card metaphor and Director uses a film metaphor). Every piece of media is an asset. Drag modifier icons onto assets to give them functionality, such as sending messages. Set the parameters of a modifier with a window of pull-down lists or fields. This concept of programming by drag-and-drop icons is prevalent in Quickmedia (http://www.omegaconcept.fr/index.php?oc=52), but what set mTropolis apart was behaviors, basically containers of modifiers that permitted complex actions to be built up. A whole behavior could be switched on or off or copied to other media (aliasing). Glen Hunter does a good job of capturing the mTropolis experience (see http://www.cbd-hq.com/articles/2000/000501gh_mtropolis.asp): a component-based development tool. The intuitive interface and OOP power made development fast and -- get this -- fun. The mTropolis reference guide also set a standard. You can d/l a copy (4.8 MB) at http://www.arch.columbia.edu/DDL/cad/AOI/S99/basics/Reference.pdf and the quick reference quide (260 kB) is at http://www.arch.columbia.edu/DDL/cad/AOI/S99/basics/Quick_ref.pdf . That brings me to the present. Steve Goldberg, many thanks for your thoughts. I just can't see behaviors and aliasing in Revolution, however. Is it just an interface thing or are they wrapped up in a whole different architecture? Could a drag-and-drop interface be made; has anybody tried? Doesn't Revolution have a roll-your-own feeling with emphasis on scripting rather than connecting components? With mTropolis I just dragged out my media and modifiers and started snapping everything together. With Revolution, well, I don't really know where to begin. I seem to be suffering vertigo of the informational architecture. __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
